As reports of the plane crash poured in on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in the southwestern Kursk region leading a ceremony honoring both the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk and Russian forces currently fighting in Ukraine.
The anniversary relates to a clash near Kursk in 1943, during World War II, when the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought in a major tank battle, resulting in a Soviet victory.
Putin gave a speech at a memorial in the village of Ponyri and presented state awards to participants in what Russia still describes as its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“The whole burden of fighting today, as in the years of the Great Patriotic War, lies primarily on our soldiers, on those who are on the front line,” Putin said at the event. “All our fighters fight bravely and decisively. Devotion to the Motherland, loyalty to the military oath unite all participants in the special military operation.”
Putin’s speech, and the elaborate, highly choreographed ceremony, were broadcast on state television Wednesday evening local time. In the same newscast, on state channel Russia 24, there was a report about a plane crash in Tver region, and that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name was among the names of the passengers.
Putin’s remarks aired around 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), while state media reported that the crash had occurred around 6 p.m. local time. Russian Emergency services said at the time that the Embraer aircraft came down near the village of Kuzhenkino, in Tver region, while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. There were 10 people on board, including three crew members, and all were killed, Russian state media said.
During the ceremony in Kursk, which Putin described as “grandiose,” the Russian leader presented a state award to the crew of the Alyosha T-80 tank, which was claimed to have destroyed a Ukrainian armored convoy on the Zaporizhzhia axis, according to state news agency TASS.
While in Kursk, Putin also met with residents, video on Russia 24 showed. Residents shook hands with Putin and some even gave him a hug, in the Russia 24 clip.
Earlier in the day, Putin addressed, via video link, the BRICS summit that is underway in Johannesburg, claiming that Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in order to end a war “unleashed by the West.”
